Water Damage to Personal Belongings. What are my rights?

Noddy1989

Hey guys, had some great advice off this website before and even though I've looked nothing seems to be too similar to what we have and therefore thought I'd make my own post.

Currently renting a student property and the roof of the extension (which is also our main living area) started leaking majorly during heavy rainfall on Wednesday. This has caused us to move everything out the room currently, and it's not liveable in.

We informed our letting agency back last October that there was another leak when it rained, but that one was much smaller albeit a nuisance because it was right next to the main plug socket in the room. However it didn't cause us problems enough bar having to put down towels or a pan every now and then. They were meant to sort it over Christmas time but never did the work, even though we were told they would. However now we've had it coming in from pretty much all over the room (every nook and cranny it could fit through it did) and it's damaged a fair amount of personal belongings, ranging from an iPod Nano to certain cables for the TV, DVD's, Games and a fair amount of clothes (most of us had just done a wash and with the rain brought it inside and had it on the floor, not ideal I know but we're students, it's what we do). I wouldn't say all the clothes were irreversibly damaged but some are, especially the whites. I'm also not sure on how much of the electric stuff is broke, but I'm not going to try turning them on. Still remember my lesson as a child "Water and Electricity do not mix!" haha

When the rain started coming in we obviously tried getting the more expensive stuff out of the room, Laptops, TV, Game Consoles etc but there's still a fair amount that's wet. We're being made to clean it up too as we're moving out on Sunday.

They are finally getting around to fixing the entire extension (think it needs a complete rebuild, which they'll have 2 months to do it in with the new tenants arriving in September). We don't have contents insurance ourself, we took the risk with regards to being broken into so I'm just wondering if we have any rights with regards to this damage that could have been prevented by them fixing the roof when they'd told us they would?

I'd like to add that most communication between us, with them being around the corner has primarily been through talking. Though we did write a list of everything wrong with the property on a piece of paper back in October and handed it to them, whether they still have that or not is a different story!

Many Thanks! And sorry for the wall of words, don't like missing things out. If this is the wrong section feel free to tell me and/or move it

marliepanda

I do not know your rights on this. However, personally I think yes, you should be able to seek compensation from your landlord..

If you left a tap on or had a large fishtank tip over, you can bet your butt the landlord would be after you for water damage to carpets etc. I don't see why it shouldn't work the other way around.

G_M

You will certainly be able to claim for damage via your contents insurance. That is exactly why you have it. Don't you?

The landlord has a duty to maintain the fabric of the building under the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 section 11. (to keep in repair the structure and exterior of the dwelling-house).

As I understand it, there is an extension (new?) which is clearly poorly constructed/maintained since
a) there is a history of leaks and
b) you say it requires a 'complete rebuild'.

To me that implies a failure by the LL to comply with section 11.

You say all communication has been 'through talking'. If you seriously want to make a claim, you must, as a first step, record what has happened in writing - a letter to the landlord, at the address provided "for the serving of notices", with a copy to the agent.

edit: just re-read your post and see you don't have insurance. There's a lesson learned.

agrinnall

While it's worth doing what G_M suggests I would imagine that the LL will try to reduce the amount they have to pay by apportioning some of the blame to you - you knew that there was a leak but continued to use the room even when there was heavy rain. Had you cleared it while the leaks were at a lesser level then there may have been no damage at all.

dimbo61

So you have no insurance to cover your belongings
it rained so you brought in the clothes from outside and put them on the FLOOR!!
You keep your ipod,laptop,games consoles on the floor of the lounge even though its been flooded before.
You never informed the LL/LA in writing about the problems with the extension when it rained and you move out very soon.
Good luck on getting your full deposit back